In: Accounting
What is the major significance of the “Byrd Rule” to tax legislation?
The Byrd Rule restricts what can be included in reconciliation legislation in the Senate. At its core, the rule prohibits provisions that are viewed as “extraneous” to the budget. The Byrd Rule therefore prevents a reconciliation bill from containing non-budgetary provisions that supporters might otherwise wish to have an easier path to passage.
Under the Byrd Rule, a provision is considered extraneous if it:
1)Does not produce a change in outlays or revenues
2)Increases the deficit beyond the “budget window”
3 )Makes changes to Social Security
It is because of the Byrd Rule that legislation to repeal and
replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has not included purely
regulatory changes to insurance markets that the ACA ushered in;
such provisions would violate the Byrd Rule’s prohibition of
non-budgetary provisions. The Byrd Rule has also led Congress to
pass legislation that “sunsets” or expires within 10 years, in
order to avoid the prohibition against increasing deficits beyond
the budget window. The 2001 tax cuts are an example of when the
Byrd rule drove the inclusion of this type of sunset in
legislation.